Artists' Mothers as Muses: From Whistler to Bourgeois

The article explores how five renowned artists—James McNeill Whistler, Vincent van Gogh, Marc Chagall, David Burliuk, and Louise Bourgeois—portrayed their mothers in their works, revealing personal relationships and artistic intentions. Whistler's 'Arrangement in Grey and Black No 1' (1871, Musée d'Orsay) was initially intended as a portrait of a young girl, but when the model failed to appear, he painted his mother, Anna, focusing on formal elements like lines and colors rather than likeness. Van Gogh's 1888 portrait, based on a black-and-white photograph, sought to capture his mother, Anna Cornelia Carbentus Van Gogh, in a harmony of color, as he wrote to his brother Theo. Chagall's 'Mother by the Oven' (1914) depicts his mother Ida as a large, powerful figure, reflecting her dominant role in the family and his view of her as 'a queen.' Burliuk's 1911 portrait of his mother Lyudmila, exhibited at The Blue Rider in Munich, presents a simplified, archetypal maternal image. Bourgeois's iconic spider sculpture 'Maman' (1999, National Gallery of Canada) symbolizes her mother, Joséphine Fauriaux, a tapestry restorer, and references the myth of Arachne. The article also notes that Burliuk exhibited his mother's works under her maiden name, Mikhnevich, and mentions Jung's archetype theory in relation to Chagall and Burliuk.